Tag Archives: Great Depression

The American Dreamhttp://www.theamericandreamfilm.com/
The AMERICAN DREAM is a 30 minute animated film that shows you how you’ve been scammed by the most basic elements of our government system. All of us Americans strive for the American Dream, and this film shows you why your dream is getting farther and farther away. Do you know how your money is created? Or how banking works? Why did housing prices skyrocket and then plunge? Do you really know what the Federal Reserve System is and how it affects you every single day? THE AMERICAN DREAM takes an entertaining but hard hitting look at how the problems we have today are nothing new,
and why leaders throughout our history have warned us and fought against the current type of financial system we have in America today. You will be challenged to investigate some very entrenched and powerful institutions in this nation, and hopefully encouraged to help get our nation back on track.
Buy it now: theamericandreamfilm.com
Watch it for FREE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv2oCXbW4r0

Introducing ‘The American Dream’: Liberty is My Cinematic Mission Statement
12-13-10
Let’s first take a look at what makes good media. Regardless of the format, whether narrative or documentary, the first and foremost thing people want is a good story. Telling a good story and crafting interesting characters is a talent.
Film-making is not something that everyone is going to be able to do well. I say this not to discourage anyone but more to identify what the real issue is. The biggest strength of the liberal voice is that they use the elements of story-telling far better. They know that stories of struggle and triumph are far more engaging than messages of statistics and fear. I am convinced a lot of liberals would like the story of free markets and small government a lot better if we
did a better job telling it.
I am hopeful that all the film-makers out there will check out what we did and have the same reaction. It’s not the Democrats versus the Republicans, that is but a distraction. The real debate is liberty, freedom and prosperity vs. control and poverty. Once you get that its no longer about party we can put that “US” Vs “THEM” aside and start making films that convey the message of liberty being the greatest mission statement a nation has ever had.

2011: A Brave New Dystopia
12-27-10
Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavement. Orwell saw the second.
Orwell warned of a world where books were banned. Huxley warned of a world where no one wanted to read books. Orwell warned of a state of permanent war and fear. Huxley warned of a culture diverted by mindless pleasure. Orwell warned of a state where every conversation and thought was monitored and dissent was brutally punished. Huxley warned of a state where a population, preoccupied by trivia and gossip, no longer cared about truth or information. Orwell saw us frightened into submission. Huxley saw us seduced into submission. But Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell. Huxley understood the process by which we would be complicit in our own enslavement. Orwell understood the enslavement. Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless.

Martial Law: UK Police Chief Mulls Banning Protests
12-15-10
UK police chief Sir Paul Stephenson is considering whether to ask the British government to ban protest marches altogether in response to last week’s student riots, a move that would place Britain under a de facto state of martial
law.
Although the establishment media in Britain dutifully blamed the protesters for the violent scenes witnessed during the demonstrations, it later emerged that police had been behind a number of provocations that caused the running street battles,..
Stephenson is considering whether to use the Public Order Act in an attempt to ban marches, despite acknowledging the fact that such a move could only exacerbate the situation. Other proposals are to use water cannons to disperse
demonstrators, as well as snatch squads that would literally abduct so-called “trouble-makers” off the streets.

Google: We’ll find info before you know you need it
12-10-10
Google is working on a service that finds information before a user has even started looking for it.
Forget Google Instant, this is about pre-emptively pushing data at users before they know they need it, said Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of geographic and local services, who was speaking at the LeWeb internet conference in Paris this
week.
Mayer said Google is looking at what she called “contextual discovery” as a way to evolve search – pushing information out to people before they’ve started to look for it, based on factors such as their web browsing history or current location.

iPhone snitch network launched
12-13-10
A new iPhone App with the misleading name ‘PatriotApp’ attempts to draw on the power of the patriot movement, turning smartphone users into a gigantic snitch network.
An app like this is meant to solidify the climate of fear in which our leaders want us to exist. The threat of terrorism must be palpable in order for the ‘War on Terror’ to be justified and to validate all the extreme measures instituted in its name.

Kosovo PM is head of human organ and arms ring, Council of Europe reports
12-14-10
Kosovo’s prime minister is the head of a “mafia-like” Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe, according to a Council of Europe inquiry report on organised crime.
The report states: “As and when the transplant surgeons were confirmed to be in position and ready to operate, the captives were brought out of the ‘safe house’ individually, summarily executed by a KLA gunman, and their corpses
transported swiftly to the operating clinic.”

In praise of Junk silver
12-14-10
Oh, you do know that only dimes (originally dismes), quarters, halves and dollars (originally eagles) minted in 1964 or before are silver, don’t you?
Nickels dated 2010 and before are an alloy containing 25% nickel, currently valued at 6¢. They may be the small change of the future. Pennies dated 1982 and before contain 95% copper, they’re going for around 2.5¢ at present.

Breaking News: Wikileaks Hacktivists Shut Down Amazon’s European Websites
12-12-10
It appears that Wikileaks hacktivists have made good on their threat to take down one of the Internet’s global behemoths. Amazon’s European websites are down and inaccessible, costing the company untold millions on one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the run up to Christmas.
Firing the biggest salvo in what hacktivists have dubbed a new cyber-war, Wikileaks supporters have seemingly exacted revenge for Amazon removing Julian Assange’s website from its cloud network of servers at the behest of Joe Lieberman’s Senate Homeland Security Committee ten days ago.

Final accord reached at Cancun despite Bolivia’s objection
12-12-10
The agreement covers establishment of a new Green Climate Fund to help poor nations, measures to protect tropical forests and a mechanism for clean energy technology transfer to poorer nations. It also reaffirmed a commitment reached at last year’s Copenhagen conference to provide 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to help developing countries fight global warming.
Bolivia rejected the two documents of the deal, saying they amounted to a blank check for developed nations because the commitments set were in documents which had not yet been published.
Solon also challenged the validity of the agreement, saying the rules stipulated it could not be passed when one state strongly objected. “We will get every international body necessary to make sure that the consensus is respected,” he said.

A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
12-12-10
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.
Derivatives are also big business on Wall Street. Banks collect many billions of dollars annually in undisclosed fees associated with these instruments — an amount that almost certainly would be lower if there were more competition and transparent prices.

Taking down America
12-07-10
If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting.
Ordinary Americans, watching their jobs head overseas, have a more realistic view than their cosseted leaders. An opinion poll in August 2010 found that 65% of Americans believed the country was now “in a state of decline.” Already, Australia and Turkey, traditional US military allies, are using their American-manufactured weapons for joint air and naval maneuvers with China. Already, America’s closest economic partners are backing away from Washington’s opposition to China’s rigged currency rates. As the president flew back from his Asian tour last month, a gloomy New York Times headline summed the moment up this way: “Obama’s Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage, China, Britain and Germany Challenge US, Trade Talks With Seoul Fail, Too.”

Obama’s new tax on…Rainwater!?
04-06-10
Think about just how big-government this is. A Washington, D.C. bureaucracy plans on forcing your local county or city to slap new taxes on you and me because this big-government bureaucracy wants to micro-manage rainwater across the entire country. Already, several counties and cities across the United States are moving to pass new taxes and fees in anticipation of the new EPA rules, including cities in states as disparate as Florida, Ohio and Kansas.

How Western Powers May Have Blown It
11-03-10
The last time this sort of economic destabilization occurred (in the 1930s), panic set in as it has now. It was only via World War II that the world’s economies were rescued and set on track for renewed growth. But a world war is infinitely more difficult to come by these days. With that option at least partially precluded (we think it is anyway, though a war with Iran is always a possibility) and with the truth-telling of the Internet continuing to expose every power elite machination literally in real time it is very difficult to tell what is going to happen next. Of course, as we wrote yesterday, we don’t know if there will be a dollar meltdown (and a metals melt up) sooner – or later. Perhaps one will
occur after the US elections as the shorts come under increased pressure. Timing is a lot harder to calculate than trends.
What we do know is that the Western power elite is a stubborn and powerful force and that it has plenty of levers to pull that can still influence economies immensely in the West and around the world. As we were finishing this article, a
feedbacker sent us a link to an announcement that the Fed is apparently about to hold a major conference at Jekyll Island, commemorating the secret meeting held 100 years ago that created of the Fed. (This just after initiating its
controversial QE2 program.) The elite may be losing control, and may be increasingly panicked about it. But these kinds of tin-eared, self-congratulatory occurrences (such as the reported, upcoming Fed meeting) make us wonder increasingly if the powers-that-be have fully grasped the magnitude of what has been unleashed.

9 Reasons Why Quantitative Easing Is Bad For The U.S. Economy
11-04-10
The truth is that many economists fear that an out of control Federal Reserve is “crossing the Rubicon” by announcing another wave of quantitative easing.
So will $900 billion be enough to get the debt spiral cranked up again?
No.
If 1.8 trillion dollars didn’t work before, why does the Federal Reserve think that 900 billion dollars is going to work now? This new round of quantitative easing will create more inflation and will cause speculative asset bubbles, but it is not going to fix what is wrong with the economy. The damage is just too vast as Charles Hugh Smith recently explained….
Anyone who believes a meager one or two trillion dollars in pump-priming can overcome $15-$20 trillion in overpriced assets and $10 trillion in uncollectible debt may well be disappointed.

Election Over, Neocon Republicans Talk War
11-04-10
It is time to get down to business now that Republicans are flush with victory. You’d think that business would be dismantling Obamacare or moving to outlaw the Federal Reserve. For establishment Republicans and their neocon buddies, however, the first item on the agenda is to make sure the war agenda moves forward.
Hours after the Republicans realized their historic victory, U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, who is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, wasted little time revealing the “broad vision for national defense policy that emphasizes winning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while also investing in the capabilities and force structure necessary to protect the United States from threats of tomorrow,” according to The Santa Clarita Valley
Signal.

Watch Out: The World Bank Is Quietly Funding a Massive Corporate Water Grab
11-02-10
Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure in Latin America, Southeast Asia, North America, Africa and everywhere else it’s been tried. But don’t tell that to controversial loan-sharks at the World Bank.
From its cultural imperialism and insensitivity to regional differences to its domination by a handful of economic elites drunk on deregulation, whose utter failure needs no further example than our continuing global economic crisis,
the World Bank’s good intentions have been compromised by an unending string of terrible press and crappier deals.
http://www.alternet.org/story/148700/

30 Reasons Why People Should Be Getting Really Nervous About The State Of The U.S. Economy
10-31-10
The same long-term trends that were ripping the U.S. financial system apart a month or two ago are still continuing to do so. Millions upon millions of American families are still deeply suffering. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Well, this is what is known as a “sucker’s rally”. Those on the inside know better than to throw money at this market. In fact, corporate insiders are now selling off stock so fast you would think it is going out of style.
Meanwhile, hordes of innocent rubes are jumping back into the stock market thinking that it is the perfect time to get in.
The truth is that these “good times” are only temporary. Don’t get used to them. The following are 30 reasons why people should be getting really, really nervous about the state of the U.S. economy….

Bernanke’s QE 2 Will Sink Just Like The Titanic
10-29-10
Their stated goal is to boost the economy and create jobs. However, since economic growth cannot be achieved by printing money, their QE 2 will sink just as surely as the Titanic.
Worse still, by keeping rates too low, the Fed has enabled the US government to grow significantly larger than it otherwise could had its borrowing been restrained by higher rates. Absent these low rates, Washington likely wouldn’t
have passed expensive new healthcare and financial regulation reforms; they would be too busy trying to keep the lights on in the Capitol.
Higher interest rates and a commitment from the Fed to refrain from purchasing Treasury debt would force the government to dramatically reduce spending. If we combine less government spending with fewer regulations, reform our tax code in a way that stops punishing savings and investment, stop all government subsidies for real estate so that prices can fall to affordable levels, and allow all insolvent entities to fail, then a real recovery will take hold.

Why Is Indiana Putting Armed Security Guards Into 36 Unemployment Offices Across The State?
10-31-10
Did you ever think that things in America would get so bad that we would need to put armed guards into our unemployment offices? Well, that is exactly what is happening in Indiana.
So is America going to become an armed camp where the people and institutions with money are protected by armed guards from the hordes of frustrated unemployed workers that can’t feed themselves or their families?
Americans are certainly not in a good mood about the economy. According to a recent poll conducted by CNBC, 92 percent of Americans believe that the performance of the U.S. economy is either “fair” or “poor”.

Foreclosuregate Explained: Big Banks on the Brink
10-28-10
Banks are in a big pickle. If they can prove they own the title to properties they want to foreclose on, they are liable to the IRS for unpaid taxes and penalties. If they don’t, the are liable to be sued by bond holders for lack of due diligence in the bundled mortgages they sold to investors.
A Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit is what the name implies – an empty pipe that allows banks to collect fees as trustees of MBS’ without owning any of the assets that back them. It also allows them to avoid taxes and title transfer fees since they only pass through titles to property held as collateral for the MBS’ they sell.

New Hidden Missile System Unknown To Feds
10-29-10
The promotional video for the Club K Missile system is part of the marketing campaign by a private, Russian-based weapons manufacturer. The cruise missile system is hidden in a 40-foot shipping container. It can fire four long range satellite-guided missiles from a ship, train or tractor-trailer.
“To look at an entire weapons system that can be put on a cargo ship and deployed is frightening,” said Brent Brown an international security consultant, “It is a pretty devastating piece of technology that could have all kinds of collateral damange.”

The Super La Nina and the Coming Winter
10-25-10
This La Nina appears to be special, at least so far. It is well on its way to being the strongest of these events since the super La Nina of 1955-1956. During that powerful La Nina that lasted two years, the global average temperature fell
nearly one degree Fahrenheit from 1953 to 1956.
The current La Nina is coming on stronger than any in decades. The world is demanding more and more energy to fuel growth even in hard economic times. This winter may test the world energy supplier’s ability to provide it. The resulting increase in demand could produce a spike in energy costs. This could bring more hardship to people who are suffering through this long and deep recession. It remains to be seen if this La Nina equals or exceeds the super La
Nina of 1955/56. Right now El Nino’s colder sister is on the fast track to generate more temperature extremes and a very cold winter in some parts of the world.

Tony Robbins Economic Warning
08-25-10
Editors Note: This is my synapsis of two videos put out by Tony Robbins.
Mr. Robbins has had the ability to work with many financial experts over the years. With that relationship has come the benefit of their foresight into financial situations many of us do not have. Robbins this past August put out a 25 minute message of economic warning. Listed below are warning signs he feels are important enough for one toconsider when evaluating their positions where their money is involved.
1 Record unemployment. Average unemployment is about 35.2 weeks or 8.75 months.
2 Consumer confidence is lowest since fall 2008 and 9-11.
3 Demand for credit is shrinking by the largest percent in 60 years. People have/are paying back more than borrowed right now by 200%.
4 Real estate: lowest rates ever, 4.5%, banks selling more than builders. 68% drop in new mortgages since 2005.
5 Banks: People not borrowing.
6 Businesses not spending
7 Fed has interest rates low, but people are not borrowing.
We are in a credit detox
Evaluate your stock positions, expects major retracement.

Dollar at Risk of Becoming ‘Toxic Waste’: Charts
10-25-10
“If the (dollar index) takes out the low that was made roughly a year ago I really think that will not only encourage more sales, it will cause a little bit of minor panic,” Griffiths said. “A year ago it was deemed too cheap, if it goes any lower than that it’s actually become toxic waste.”
Typically the major stock markets see a seasonal decline in September, but this year the month saw the markets rise strongly.
The seasonal upswing should add to any positive momentum being generated by expectations of further monetary easing from the Federal Reserve, Griffiths said.

Willem Buiter: The US Must Prepare For Savage Austerity
10-21-10
In an interview with Tom Keene yesterday, Citi strategist Willem Buiter, alongside Howard Davies chairman of the London School of Economics, said that “savage austerity” is in the US’ future. “The only question was really the timing and the composition.”
Too bad that even the possibility of actual austerity in the US would result with riots so severe it will make the ongoing economic freeze in France seem like the peak of Chinese economic growth.

Time Magazine: Prospect Of Civil War In U.S. “Doesn’t Seem That Far Fetched”
10-20-10
With protesters in France entering a seventh day of strikes and demonstrations against draconian austerity measures, many political observers in the U.S. are now wondering how long it will be before similar scenes unfold on American streets, with even Time Magazine now conceding that the prospect of a civil war in the States “doesn’t seem that far fetched”.
The question remains – how will Americans react if the Obama administration pushes ahead with its plan to seize all private 401(k) pensions, which will be swallowed up by the Social Security Administration under the banner of mandatory Guaranteed Retirement Accounts? How will Americans react to the upcoming announcement that the Federal Reserve will further eviscerate the value of the dollar by purchasing junk assets from big banks at exorbitant prices with money printed out of thin air?(Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the video interview with Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi)

Violent Anarchists Help French Authorities Crush Pension Protests
10-20-10
As we pointed out yesterday, there are two different groups protesting in France at the moment, those who are having a genuine impact, the union workers who have shut down entire areas of the country with fuel blockades, go-slow protests and picket lines and in doing so garnered the support of 70% of the country, and the idiot rent-a-mob anarcho-communists who will seize on any opportunity to run rampage in the deluded belief that they are standing up to the evil forces of capitalism by throwing a rock at a Starbucks window.
We have documented numerous different examples where the black bloc anarchists were completely infiltrated by the authorities to provide a pretext for a police state crackdown.
Every time a car is set alight or a shop window shattered, the state gets another opportunity to castigate the entire protest movement as a hoard of violent extremists, and with it meter out a more brutal and oppressive police response.

Americans Buying Guns In Preparation For Civil Unrest
10-18-10
Americans are acquiring guns, silver and food stamps at record levels in reaction to the crumbling economy, trends indicative of a fearful public who are struggling financially and preparing for potential mass civil unrest in the aftermath of a total economic collapse.
Interest in silver coins is also surging, with Americans looking for more affordable ways to protect their increasingly devalued dollar savings with many unable to afford soar away gold prices.

New Rules Coming for Payments Out of Health Savings Accounts
10-15-10
Under the new health care law, consumers using workplace pre-tax health savings accounts will soon need a doctor’s note to pay for Tylenol and an estimated 15,000 other over-the-counter drugs.
The IRS says any money removed from HSA accounts to pay for medical expenses bought without a prescription will be included as taxable income and subject to an additional tax of 20 percent.

Science may have found silver bullet for common cold
10-18-10
Researchers have found they can attach tiny studs of silver to harmless bacteria, giving them the ability to destroy viruses. They tested the silver-impregnated bacteria against norovirus, which causes winter vomiting outbreaks, and found they leave the virus unable to cause infections.